What's my (PC's) motivation?

[Jhaelen]

I voted for duty because after giving it some consideration that seems to be the most common motive for my characters (and also the most recent). The kind of duty varies wildly, though.

Looking over the list I've had characters with every listed motive except maybe revenge:

I can only remember one character whose motive was most similar to partying:
It was a charismatic orc swordmaster who was basically a coward calling himself adventurer mostly because of he liked to bathe in the admiration of the common folk.

I've often used money as a central motive for either mercenary-style characters or 'traders/looters'. The latter includes a dwarven scholar who accompanied adventurers to write down their stories, travel journals and create maps to sell them to the highest bidder and become famous at the same time.

Power is often a secondary goal, rarely the primary or only goal for my characters.

What I've never done was to create a character without any motivation - I always think of a backstory even if it's just a few sentences short. How else could I roleplay the character?

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I have more than one PC. For one, it's money. For the other, it's to save the world (and because he's got nowhere else to go, having left his clanhalls when his true love was married to another).

 

[shilsen]

These are the reasons why my current PC and my girlfriend's PC (in the same 4e game) adventure:

Hers - Penelope Pindar (human ranger) adventures to escape an inescapable destiny, namely that of turning into a cat lady like her mother was. Plus she has body image issues (she wears a burkha) and adventuring lets her shoot people who are rude to her in the face.

Mine - Captain Artichoke (human warlord) adventures to prove a point. A failed motivational speaker (author of pamphlets such as “The Seven Habits of Highly Lethal People” and “How to Win Friends and Crush Your Enemies, See them Driven Before You, and Hear the Lamentation of their Women”), Captain has formed a group of ne'er-do-well's to prove that his theories about personal growth and improvement through self-belief and gaining lots of XP actually work. He might have a teensy-weensy similarity to Dr Phil.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Mine - Captain Artichoke (human warlock) adventures to prove a point. A failed motivational speaker (author of pamphlets such as “The Seven Habits of Highly Lethal People” and “How to Win Friends and Crush Your Enemies, See them Driven Before You, and Hear the Lamentation of their Women”), Captain has formed a group of ne'er-do-well's to prove that his theories about personal growth and improvement through self-belief and gaining lots of XP actually work. He might have a teensy-weensy similarity to Dr Phil.

That's amazing! Regrettably, the teachings of Genghis Khan do not work so well in pamphlet form, a sorrow I too have had to endure.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I just may have to find a way to put Captain Artichoke as an NPC in one of my games...

 

[Mallus]

Captain has formed a group of ne'er-do-well's to prove that his theories about personal growth and improvement through self-belief and gaining lots of XP actually work.

Help me out here, shil. What would you --or Artichoke-- describe as Yatagan's motivation? After last session even I'm at loss, despite the fact he's my character (one of Captain Artichoke's band ne'er-do-wells).

edit: and Artichoke's a warlord, not a warlock.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

You're missing one of the most important motivations in human history: Glory.

My current character in the age of worms started off doing a favor for a friend who had been rescued by our previous characters and had then not heard from them (they got TPKed). He is seeing it through to the end

Spoiler

facing down the worm god, Kyuss, himself

for a number of reasons, but the primary one is glory. He doesn't particularly want power though he does like power. (He's got that simply by being an epic level character in Greyhawk). He doesn't particularly want the life of the party, though he'll take pleasure where he can get it. (If he wanted that, he could live like a potentate in some other plane off of the price of merely one of the vorpal swords he collected from his enemies). No, there are three reasons that he is seeing it through. He is seeing it through because he doesn't back down and once the gauntlet has been tossed to him, he's going to overcome a challenge or die trying. He is seeing it through because his friends are doing it, and he wouldn't want to let them down. And, most importantly, he is seeing it through because winning will prove that he is the best, and he wants everyone to know it.

Reportedly, Julius Caesar upon passing a wretchedly poor village in Cisalpine Gaul, commented to his companions, that he would rather be the first man in that village, than the second in Rome.

 

[haakon1]

Captain Artichoke

ROFLMAO. That's why we love you, Shilsen.

 

[shilsen]

That's amazing! Regrettably, the teachings of Genghis Khan do not work so well in pamphlet form, a sorrow I too have had to endure.

I just may have to find a way to put Captain Artichoke as an NPC in one of my games...

ROFLMAO. That's why we love you, Shilsen.

I aim to please

The nice thing is that even with that kind of a background, Captain (that's actually his first name, so during a short stint in the military he was Private Captain Artichoke) is perfectly functional as a character, mechanically and otherwise, and is in many ways the straight man for the party. Every group needs one, esp. ours.

 

[Silver Moon]

Shouldn't there be a poll option of:

"Kill him and take his stuff".